


Clouded

by Tortellini



Category: Maximum Ride - James Patterson
Genre: Blind Character, Blindness, Canon Disabled Character, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Children, Disability, Disabled Character, Experimentation, Gen, Government Experimentation, Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Medical Experimentation, POV First Person, Physical Disability, Pre-Canon, Torture, Unethical Experimentation, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tortellini/pseuds/Tortellini
Summary: Three kids have to deal with stuff no one should have to deal with. Or: how Iggy becomes blind, from Fang's point of view.
Kudos: 12





	Clouded

"Fang. Fang, wake up." 

I was abruptly pulled out of my dream of real food and an actual bed. It was my--well my friend Max, shaking me through the bars of her own crate. 

"Wha--?" I yawned and stretched, only to hit my bare grimy feet against the bars of my own cage. Nine-year-old kids aren't supposed to swear, are they? Well too bad. I heard snickering on the opposite side of me and I turned slightly.

My other friend--as much as genetic-mutants who really spent their whole lives in literal dog crates can have friends--was hunched over and grinning painfully. Iggy's dark blue eyes twinkled. I rolled my own eyes at him. 

I guess I should explain myself a little bit. Max, Iggy, and I aren't normal kids, but you might've guessed that by now. We were raised with cages, needles, pills, as our companions. Actual torture. We tried to keep our spirits up the best we could. But after days of running on a treadmill for seven hours without barely any breaks, it was pretty tough. Or just the classic: pinned down on a hospital bed with needles stuck in us. That's what would be in store for us later. 

The door on the far wall opened. Shadowy figures in white coats walked towards us slowly. We all cringed. 

One man seemed to tell the others to go back though. I glanced at my friends. Max's face was trying to be expressionless, but sweat rolled down the side. Iggy met my gaze and gave me what I guess was supposed to be a brave smile. I tried to return it. I knew mine was just a weak grimace. 

The man bent down on his knees next to our cages once the others who had come with him had left back through the door. He had a surprisingly kind face with dark brown eyes, and glasses and a mustache. He studied us intently. 

"Jeb." My voice was hoarse. 

"Hey, Fang. How're you guys doing?" I shrugged. 

"Oh just great." Iggy said sarcastically. "What's up on the torture list today, pal?"

Jeb frowned, and reached into his pocket. I flinched, expecting a needle or some sort of tube or something even worse. But unbelievably he pulled out a little piece of heaven: three chocolate chip muffins. My eyes watered and I felt drool fill my mouth. Food, real food...

Jeb looked nervously behind himself before he turned back to us. He really did want to help us, I thought in disbelief. Iggy would be sarcastic and Max would be suspicious but if he could feed us like this...we could hang on for a little bit longer. 

"Eat these quickly," he handed us the muffins."And try to hang in there. I'll help you." And then he left.

"Hey, why do _you_ get the big muffin?" I asked Iggy after Jeb left. He grinned. 

"Maybe because I'm special."

"Geez, do you ever brush your teeth?" I wrinkled my nose. It was a rhetorical question. I knew the answer. 

"Hey, you're one to talk," he said back to me. "Your hair's a rat's nest."

I laughed. The real food and the temporary safeness was making me sleepy, even if I knew I'd just woken up not too long ago. I leaned against the cold metal bars and felt Max slip her hand through mine as a comfort. I was out of danger. My friends were fed and safe. And best of all, Jeb, in that weird confusing way of his, had promised he would help us. At least, I think.

* * *

The next morning was the opposite of the previous one. Instead of the eerie calmness of the absence of Whitecoats, today it was crawling with them. And they bent over Iggy's cage with clipboards and bright lights. 

"What's going on?" I whispered to Max. 

"I don't know." she sounded scared. "Listen."

At first I assumed it was just another day of fun with needles and whatever the hell else they had. They had never really singled one of us out before. And they never had twelve Whitecoats come out to get us. 

"C'mon, Number One-Twenty-Four," said a man's voice. We had named ourselves, and Jeb was the only one who cared to learn what our names actually were. "We have a special plan for you today."

"That's reassuring," Iggy muttered so we could hear it. And he still didn't move. 

Two guards--Erasers--reached into the cage and grabbed him to haul him out. Now let me you something: Iggy's tall. I mean really tall. We're all pretty tall but at age nine he was the tallest. So seeing him stand there, beaten and scared, but almost as tall as the scientists... It was weird. 

"I guess my buddies won't be coming, huh?" he asked softly.

One scientist shook his head no. "Number One-Twenty-Three and One-Twenty-Five have not yet developed their skills yet."

I almost felt offended. But then relief, and then immediately after was a horrible guilt. Fear and worry were mixed in too. All of these overpowered my mind. 

They then performed some tests on him, right then and there. So were so disturbing and and painful that Max and I had to turn away. Others were blood tests, and agility tests--they shot at him with guns and saw if he could dodge them. Reflex tests came next, and hearing tests, seeing tests--he had the best sight of us too--and lastly, the average mental tests. 

After they did the sight test though, all of the Whitecoats looked excited. It was ominous. 

"He's perfect!" one said. 

"All we have to do is enhance--"

"Reilly, remind me again. What's the plan?" Jeb asked one of the scientists calmly. He and the guy turned away and talked, the man named Reilly excitedly and using his hands a lot. When he'd finished Jeb didn't look excited too; instead he looked horrified and disgusted.

Iggy glanced back at us. "What's happening?" he asked out of the corner of his mouth. 

"I don't know," I said. "But try not to worry. They won't kill you." Not on purpose, I added, just to myself. 

As if on cue two Erasers grabbed him. Iggy struggled, but weakly. 

"Fang! Max!" he cried. "Help me!"

There was nothing we could do though. We all knew it. Before we could say anything back, he was shoved in another lab room, and the door was slammed. 

"I'm sorry, guys," Jeb said quietly.

I wasn't having any of that. "Don't just stand there, do something!"

"What are they going to do to him, Jeb? He's not going to die, right?" Max's voice was steely. 

"Most likely--" we tensed. "--not. But--"

"Batchelder!" came Reilly's rough voice. "Get in here or you're fired!"

Jeb stood up slowly, tiredly. Max stopped him though:

"...protect him, Jeb." Her voice was soft.

He said nothing and left.

* * *

The next few hours were torture, but in a different way for Max and I than we were used to. We couldn't make out anything specific: garbled voices, shouting, screaming. Screaming from a human child. It was something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. 

I'd fallen into a fitful sleep in the middle of the day. Like usual, Max was pressed against the bars of her own crate, holding my hand too. But we were awoken by a door opening. Jeb walked towards us briskly, his face white and tense, and a hand closed around Iggy's wrist. Iggy, to our horror, was crying, his face raw and wet with tears. 

"I'm sorry," Jeb said, as he unlocked Iggy's cage...and took off his coat? That didn't make sense. Because even if he was nice to us, he was never _that_ nice. He wrapped his coat around Iggy's thin shoulders then. "There's food in the pockets. Share it with the others. If anyone asks, just tell them I gave it to you." He unlocked our cages too, then took one of them and broke the roof. He stacked them on top of each other so it was a little bit bigger. 

"I'm still gonna have to lock you guys in, but hopefully you'll be more comfortable."

Iggy whimpered, reached out for the bars, and Max took his hands to help him. I was staring at Jeb. But he wouldn't meet my eyes. 

"Thanks," Iggy said shakily when he found the door. A moment later though, he blinked. "Jeb," Iggy was a tough kid, like all of us were, and right now he sounded more angry than scared. "Jeb, why can't I see anything?"

All at once we all seemed to panic.

"You said nothing would happen to him!" I yelled. 

"I'm sorry--I didn't mean--" Jeb wrung his hands. 

"Well it doesn't matter if you 'didn't mean' to do this. How could you?!"

"Fang," Max said. "He didn't--"

"No. It _is_ my fault." Jeb said. "I'll see if anyone can do something to help you, Iggy."

I glared at him until he turned and left, his hands shoved in pockets. Max touched my arm. I sighed and then turned stiffly around in the cage. Iggy sniffled and then tried to cover it up; he crawled towards us. 

"Guys," he whispered. "Am I really...?" His voice trailed off, and he touched his eyelids. 

"I-I don't know, Ig." I said honestly, and looked at Max. She shrugged. 

"Can you see anything?" she asked. 

He sat up and brushed his hair out of his eyes and squinted at me, and then Max. 

"...no," he said. "Nothing."

It took a moment for that to sink in. Iggy, our joker, the happy-go-lucky kid, our lookout--was most likely blind now. What would the Whitecoats do with a blind kid...?

He turned away, but not before I saw something.

"Ig," I said slowly. "Turn towards me again."

He did. His...eyes. Before this whole thing happened, I used to think--to be jealous, honestly--that, if we ever got out of here he'd definitely get a girlfriend quickly. Because I had dark eyes that would totally reflect what I'd been through. He had twinkling dark blue ones. That, with his wild hair and good sense of humor, he was was pretty cool. 

But now his eyes were messed up. Disturbing. Creepy. Instead of dark blue, they were a pale colorless white. 

"...acid," Max said without making eye contact. 

"...I'm gonna stay blind, aren't I." Iggy whispered. 

We said nothing. There was nothing to say. 


End file.
